What books are we reading at the moment ?

[PaulF]

The BBC article about how people exaggerate what they're reading to impress others

[Wowbagger]

This week I read a quite amusing children's book, The Boy in the Dress, by David Walliams, of whom I had never previously heard. My daughter recommended the book.

[pcolbeck]

This week I read a quite amusing children's book, The Boy in the Dress, by David Walliams, of whom I had never previously heard. My daughter recommended the book.

You are a High Court Judge and ICMFP.

You really had never heard of David Walliams ?

[Wowbagger]

Not until my daughter handed me the book, no.

[pcolbeck]

Never seen Little Britain or seen them interviewed or read a newspaper article about it ?

[Wowbagger]

No. I watch hardly any television and the only newspapers I read are the online ones, so I only open the pages I want to read.

[harrumph]

No. I watch hardly any television and the only newspapers I read are the online ones, so I only open the pages I want to read.

Strewth, you're even more disconnected from popular "culture" than me 

Congratulations! 

[redshift]

A few questions (space and time, size and shape of the universe, how do we know, etc?) in conversation with a young chap at work* the other day has prompted me to go back and dig out my copy of Carl Sagan's Cosmos.  I know it's been superseded in areas, but I'd forgotten just how readable it is.



*This was prompted by the news about the Milky Way's black hole, although we never actually got as far as discussing stellar evolution.

[Wowbagger]

No. I watch hardly any television and the only newspapers I read are the online ones, so I only open the pages I want to read.

Strewth, you're even more disconnected from popular "culture" than me 

Congratulations! 

I've just watched a recording of last night's HIGNFY and David Walliams got a mention. That's the first time I've heard him mentioned on telly.

[ghostrider]

A Snowball in Hell - Christopher Brookmyre

And so far yet another witty amusing read.

[simonp]

Nonzero - The Logic of Human Destiny

[Deano]

Two books which have made me laugh out loud:

Great Expectations (the first time I've read it, to my shame)

Roger's Profanisarus

[Tom B]

Just finished 'Slow Man' by J.M. Coetzee. Prose is spare, pithy, elegiac with a quite unexpected swerve into metafiction just as I was getting settled into the story. 

Also, there's a cycling aspect: story begins with him getting knocked off his bike and losing a leg...

[tiermat]

Under The Eagle by Simon Scarrow

The first of his series about the Roman army, and in particular a Centurion and an Optio called Macro and Cato.

Very good, and very well researched.

[scott]

'Winter Holiday' (again) by Arthur Ransome.  It's a great read at cold times of the year. 

That's good to hear--I'll be reading that one to Anders at bedtime starting in a day or two, as soon as we finish 'Swalllowdale.'    I had no idea when I was a kid that there were more books after Swallows and Amazons  , which I picked up at a school book sale when I was about nine. But now I have an excuse to read all of them, except for the one or two that apparently have a bit much shooting and mayhem for a six-year-old.

I just finished Robert Macfarlane's 'The Wild Places,' which is now heavily dog-eared, and have to decide between 'Bicycling Beyond the Divide: Two Journeys into the West' by Daryl Farmer (which I just got for my birthday) or 'Connemara: Last Pool of Darkness' by Tim Robinson, which I've been eagerly awaiting.

[Torslanda]

Eric Clapton's autobiography.

For the second time this year I have been surprised to have my preconceptions blasted out of the water by an honest account of someone's life who, when he looks back on it, doesn't like what he sees for most of it. . .

Quite a tortured soul for most of his adult life and 99% of it self inflicted. This could have been a warm, fuzzy kind of book, a 'Look at me now!' kind of book,  a saccharine 'I've been a bad boy and I'm sorry' kind of book. Instead it's a 'warts and all' account of someone who, despite his fame (Clapton is God - remember?) had a very low self esteem from a very early age. Big respect.

J 

[scott]

getting knocked off his bike and losing a leg...

That's a fine pancake, and no mistake

[Tom B]

Just finished 'The People's Act of Love' by James Meek
An unusually powerful (and readable) novel

[peliroja]

Just finished Life Class and Another World, both by Pat Barker. Great, evocative reads. She has such a moreish style.

[David Martin]

Well, Over christmas I have read:

Bradleys auto - in pursuit of glory
Chris' auto heroes, villains and velodromes
The Inkheart Trilogy
And am currently working my way through 'emergence' by stephen Johnson and can then approach the Ann Mustoe book..

But back to work tomorrow..

..d

[Deano]

The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon.

I'm about halfway through and enjoying it.

It was a Christmas present from my sister, who apparently went into Waterstone's and picked three books which looked interesting.  A system which meets my approval

[pcolbeck]

The Civil War: The War of the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660
Trevor Royle

A history of the Civil War. Very good so far.

[woollypigs]

Just finished H. G. Wells - Wheels of Change, top read I enjoyed it. I tried to trace the route he cycled in around 5 days. Gmaps Pedometer around 250 miles. Yes some of the roads are not there any more and have changed a lot since then. I have a bit of problem with the route between Winchester and Ringwood, and I'm guessing the roads between towns.

Now off to find the next book to read.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Nelson Mandela's autobiography - Long Walk to Freedom.

[ibrahim]

'Les Jardins de lumiere' (the Gardens of Light) by Amin Maalouf, an unusual book about Mani, a third century prophet who was demonised to the extreme by Christian Orthodoxy...